June 28-30, 1863 - Gettysburg Campaign: Skirmish of Sporting Hill (& Harrisburg Cemetery)
June 30, 1863
Skirmish of Sporting Hill
Cumberland County, PA (present-day Camp Hill and environs)
Darius N. Couch (PA And NY state militias): > Union General Joseph Knipe’s force of two NY infantry regiments (the 8th and 71st NY National Guard; 22nd and 37th NY Militia) > Gen. John Ewen and his green NYers do badly > & a Philadelphia artillery unit, commanded by Captain Henry Landis (brother-in-law of General John Reynolds of Gettysburg fame)
VS.
Ewell: Jenkins (16th & 36th VA Cavalry) > Lt. Col. Vincent A. Witcher
* This is it: the Northernmost engagement of Lee's Army of Virginia (yes, there were Confederate raids into Ohio, but that's not a battle). With apologies to the Battle of Schrute Farm
* "the farthest northern advances of Confederate forces in the war"
* Fort Couch and Fort Washington hastily built to defend the way towards Harrisburg; Union skirmishers come from and return to these forts
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| I love that this inauspicious location marks the Northernmost battle of the Civil War. You can almost see the signs by the doorway to the building. |
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| And here they are. |
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| https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=167857 |
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| https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=94824 And here's what they both say (it's a lot, but it's good): June 28 "Spearheading the Confederate advance on Harrisburg, Confederate General Albert G. Jenkins captured Mechanicsburg on the morning of Sunday, June 28, 1863. From there, Jenkins split his 1,200 man cavalry force—sending some 300-400 northward via the Hodgestown Road to the Carlisle Pike. At the request of his fearful fellow citizens of Hodgestown, Jacob Otstat destroyed 45 gallons of brandy so that the incoming invaders could not indulge themselves. From Hodgestown, this band of Confederates, led by Lt. Col. Vincent A. Witcher, continued east on the Carlisle Pike until he reached a commanding ridge which was the home to the former Salem Church. The church, located on the 6200 block of Carlisle Pike, is the final resting place for numerous Civil War veterans and features many unique gravestones. From there he eyed Union General Joseph Knipe’s force of two New York infantry regiments (the 8th and 71st New York State National Guard) and a Philadelphia artillery unit a little more than a mile and a half away, near the Samuel Eberly barn at present-day 5100 block of Carlisle Pike. Witcher deployed two Confederate cannons at the church, and the two sides engaged in artillery fire around noon. According to a Confederate lieutenant, General Jenkins rode north to the church from Mechanicsburg to the church where he surveyed the action from atop his horse. After about half an hour, Knipe left his advanced position and headed back towards Oyster’s Point (present day Camp Hill) and the safety of the Union lines. The New Yorkers reported an orderly withdrawal; a local, however, less politely recounted: “They [Knipe’s men] were fired on by rebel pickets or imagined they were, when they took to their heels dropping blankets, knapsacks, canteens, guns and haversacks never looking back till within the fort.” The truth may lie somewhere in between. The New Yorkers fell back to about the present-day 3100 block of Market Street in Camp Hill, at a road junction then popularly known as Oyster’s Point. Witcher’s Confederates continued their probe towards Harrisburg, and cautiously pursued the New Yorkers eastward on the Carlisle Pike, until setting up camp in the vicinity of the 4700 block of Carlisle Pike, on the high ground above Orr’s Bridge." June 30th After an eventful two days of probing Harrisburg’s defenses, Confederate General Albert G. Jenkins had received the welcome orders to stand down. Lieutenant General Richard Ewell’s two Confederate infantry divisions currently in Carlisle, numbering some 15,000 men, would be marching on the state capital on the morning of June 30, 1863, or so Jenkins had been told. But later on, the fateful orders from Robert E. Lee arrived for Ewell to turn back and link up with other Confederate forces near Gettysburg. Inexplicably, Jenkins had not been informed; he merely withdrew a short distance west to the cover of Silver Spring Creek, where he and his men waited for Ewell’s troops to overtake them and perhaps undertake an assault on Harrisburg’s defenders. In the meantime, Union General Darius Couch had reports from scouts of Ewell’s new course, and he decided to turn the tables, probing to find, and perhaps cut off, Jenkins. For the mission he chose the inexperienced General John Ewen and his similarly green regiment of New York State National Guardsmen. Like Ewen, most of these New Yorkers were businessmen and store clerks from the streets of New York, and few had ever been tested in battle. In the early afternoon, some Union cavalrymen had clashed with Jenkins’ outer picket posts. Jenkins panicked as he learned simultaneously that Ewell was no longer supporting him in Carlisle. He dispatched his largest regiment with some 500 men to Carlisle to protect his retreat route. Fearing a large Union force would soon be bearing down on him from the east, Jenkins ordered Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Witcher and a motley assembly of 300 men and two cannons to “hold the enemy in check at all hazards.” Marching sluggishly on the Carlisle Pike, Ewen’s 1,400 New Yorkers did not arrive at Sporting Hill until around 3:30 p.m. on the afternoon of June 30. Once there, they were welcomed with a volley of musket-fire from 50 Confederates taking cover in Moses Eberly’s barn (see map). Witcher and his main contingent of Confederates had positioned themselves in the rear in Gleim’s grove (see map). Pinned down on the Carlisle Pike, two companies of New Yorkers were moved into the woods near the Confederate position (along present-day Van Patten Drive). Later, Ewen deployed his full brigade, with about 400 men south of the Pike, and even more north of the Pike, directly fronting the barn. Several men, including a drummer boy, were wounded in the northern wing. Witcher’s Confederates held their own, remarkably, until a Philadelphia artillery unit, commanded by Captain Henry Landis (brother-in-law of General John Reynolds of Gettysburg fame) arrived. They commenced to load their piece fuze-first (essentially backwards), but were stopped, given a brief lesson, and their first shot struck the barn square in the center. The bothersome Confederates evacuated the barn and eventually left the field after a brief artillery duel. Some 16 dead Virginians were left on the field of battle, and Witcher brought 20-30 wounded with him, some of whom died on the retreat. Ewen’s New Yorkers suffered no fatalities, but 11 men were slightly wounded." Here's the remains of the barn the Rebs were in. Oddly, I couldn't find it's own historic marker. The original home and the barn's remains were preserved by a real estate developer who built a nearby apartment complex. He took the pic too!  By Gaughen - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9842646 Details, including the "northernmost" claim, confirmed by the historical marker from PA Historical and Museum Commission  Just "a relatively small skirmish," but it gets its own wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skirmish_of_Sporting_Hill Yes, this overlaps with Oyster Point. And Wrightsville is part of the same campaign too. It ends with shelling of Carlisle, PA, at the same time as Gettysburg.  Sorry, but there's even more. Since I don't have a date to put it under, here comes the fairly awesome Harrisburg Cemetery - General Knipe is buried here! (His home in Harrisburg has a marker too, but I missed it.) When I told the folks at the National Civil War Museum that I explore this cemetery alone there were two non-consecutive audible gasps. NBD. It was luscious and silent. Lots of Revolutionary soldiers too, if you're into that sorta of thing; I'm not. "This 35-acre cemetery, chartered by the Commonwealth and opened in 1845, is the oldest and largest in the capital city. It is noted for its ornate statuary, original caretaker's house designed by A.J. Downing, and late Victorian landscape architecture. More than 30,000 persons are interred here, including Revolutionary War dead, Pennsylvania Governors, and others of local, state and national renown."  The view from near the cemetery, looking back across the river into Harrisburg.  "Here is established Harrisburg's oldest and largest Cemetery and final resting place of many noted individuals of national, state and local importance in all walks of life. Chartered in 1845, the Cemetery was created just outside the limits of the then-Borough of Harrisburg on the rural bluff of what would be later known as Allison Hill. It became evident that a new cemetery, properly situated as a tribute to Harrisburg's by-gone generations, was required to fulfill the need to relocate graves from the older churchyard cemeteries downtown that were being replaced by the increased demand for new building construction. In 1845, the Carpenter Gothic-styled caretaker's house was completed and remains to this day in its original form with floor plan in the sign of a cross. Dead from all American Wars, including the Revolutionary War and Civil War, as well as Confederate prisoners from the Battle of Gettysburg who died in Harrisburg hospitals, are reposed here. The Cemetery is also the final resting place of four Pennsylvania Governors, most of the Mayors of Harrisburg, a number of United States Senators and U.S. Congressmen and many of Harrisburg's famous merchants, business leaders, bankers, lawyers and judges. Well known names such as Cameron, Olmsted, Kunkel, McCormick, Kelker, Muench, Verbeke, Reily and McFarland are all interred here. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the 30-acre Harrisburg Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Pennsylvania to hold such a distinction. This site is literally an outdoor museum of obelisks, statuary, monuments and mausoleums commemorating those who have contributed to building the Nation's and Harrisburg's distinguished legacies. Space remains for additional burials in the future."  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=6851  And here's the best one: "Harrisburg Cemetery holds the remains of many famous Pennsylvanians, including those who contributed to the Commonwealth's and the Union's military and anti-slavery efforts prior to, and during, the Civil War. Union and Confederate soldiers wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, and who later died in Harrisburg hospitals, are interred here. The statue and grave of Major General John White Geary (1819-1873), who served as Mayor of San Francisco and Governor of both the Kansas Territory and Pennsylvania, is also buried here. During the war, he served with distinction during the Chancellorville, Gettysburg, and Atlanta campaigns. Harrisburg lawyer and judge Mordecai McKinney (1796-1867), who helped lead the way through adversity in defending local African Americans and fugitive slaves from the South, is also interred here. Born into a slaveholding family, McKinney became a fervent abolitionist who tirelessly worked to improve the cultural life of the African American community in Harrisburg by helping to found the African American Second Presbyterian Church. Brigadier General Joseph F. Knipe (1824-1901), who assisted in the Union's defense of Harrisburg when threatened by Confederate forces in June 1863, also lies here, as does Simon Cameron (1799-1889), Abraham Lincoln's first secretary of war and longtime U.S. senator."   (For the record, Cheat Mountain was where I was trying to get when I almost died driving in a blizzard in West Virginia in my Hyundai. Maybe in a better season...It is not easy getting to Rich Mountain either! [2024 Update: I went back and kicked those mountains' asses! See The First Campaign in 1861]) ****************************************************** And some more Harrisburg  "Threatened Invasion of Harrisburg"General Robert E. Lee decided to take the war into the North in June 1863, allowing Southern farmers an uninterrupted growing season, and perhaps convincing European powers to aid the Confederacy. As the rebels invaded Pennsylvania, Harrisburg made a tempting target as a key transportation hub that promised access to a large cache of military supplies at nearby Camp Curtin. Its loss, as an important Union state capital, would be a major blow to Northern morale. Union Major General Darius Couch was charged with the defense of Harrisburg. Low on troops, Couch did the best he could, hastily building fortifications on the heights directly across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg. Pennsylvania and New York militia troops manned the defenses. Confederate cavalry under Brigadier General Albert Jenkins captured nearby Mechanicsburg on June 28. The next day, his troops skirmished with Federals at Oyster Point (in present-day Camp Hill). On June 30, Couch’s troops met the Confederates at Sporting Hill, about five miles from Harrisburg. Throughout the afternoon, Union and Confederate forces fought the northernmost engagement of the Gettysburg campaign. Jenkins withdrew that day to join Lee’s army concentrating near Gettysburg. Harrisburg had been saved."  |
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